Team:Grenoble/Design/accueil

Our project aims at constructing an easy to use, transportable sensor capable of quantifying the concentration of mercury, in an aqueous sample.

Our system is based on a comparison between an unknown mercury concentration and a known IPTG concentration. A linear IPTG gradient is present on a test-strip containing the engineered bacteria. When the mercury solution is added, the regulatory network will switch to one of two states depending on the IPTG/mercury ratio.

Bacteria become either“sender” or “receiver”. The bacteria sensing a predominance of mercury over IPTG, the “senders”, will release a quorum sensing molecule which is detected by the nearby “receivers”. The reception of quorum sensing molecules will induce the expression of a red dye in the “receivers”. In this way, a red line emerges at a position in the IPTG gradient from which the unknown mercury concentration can be deduced.